It was a sad end to his Australian Open experience for Andy Murray as he fell to defeat against Mischa Zverev

“I mean, look, I had some opportunities at the end. I think the last two service games I had chances. Maybe three service games in the last set he started missing a couple of balls he’d been making.

“But he came back from all of those mistakes, kept coming at me, kept coming up with great shots. There's not too much you can do about that. Sometimes you got to say: Well played.

“It was obviously disappointing to lose. Right now, I’m really down about it. he did some good stuff out there and he deserved to go through.”

In his kit splashed with day-glo orange - sleeves, shorts, sweatbands and shoes - 29-year-old Zverev was a walking migraine. And there wasn’t a moment out there where he didn’t give the tournament favourite headaches.

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Every time Murray broke his serve, he was broken right back. Every time Murray missed a first serve, Zverev stepped in off the baseline to attack the second. In an era when so many are content to defend with their backs to the stands, this guy stormed the net from first to last, took it to the World No1 and simply blew him away. He was simply sensational.

Twenty-four hours earlier, his 19-year-old brother Sacha had come within a bout of cramp of beating the great Rafa Nadal in a pulsating five-setter. Now, it was Mischa’s turn - and with Sacha and parents-slash-coaches Alexander and Irina looking on, he looked the proudest man on earth.

As a distraught Murray slunk away with barely a wave, Zverev said: “Honestly, I don’t know how I did it. I was in a coma, just serving and volleying my way through it. I don’t know how I made certain points, but I just got there in the end.

But for Murray, it was a very frustrating match, with things not going his way at all in a missed opportunity

“I got excited the longer it went, not nervous. How can you not stay focussed and aggressive with this crowd making all this noise, but it’s hard to stay calm. Even when I missed a really easy smash in the fourth set, I looked at my mum and she just smiled. She always does. That really helped me.

“This means the world to me and it also does that all my family are here to see it. I saw Sacha lose so closely in an incredible match yesterday, but it definitely inspired me. He always does.

“Now I’m the first of us to make the quarters of a Grand Slam, but he’s still ranked above me, so he still gets to walk through the door first.

“I don’t know how I feel yet about playing in the last eight, but if it’s Roger then that’s a dream, because as I grew up he was always my favourite player.”

Murray, watched by wife Kim in a straw hat with a brim so wide they could use it to keep the rain off Centre Court, had reached the final in 13 of his last 14 tournaments and this was seen by many experts as little more as a warm-up for Roger Federer or Kei Nishikori in the last eight.

Murray didn't hang around too long after the defeat, handing the limelight over to Zverev, and justly

Zverev, though, hadn’t read the script.

He was fearless, coming to the net at every opportunity and pulling Murray into long, rapier rallies. His serve isn’t monster, certainly nothing like Sam Querrey in the previous round, but he gets in behind it fast and closes down the court, daring his opponent to find a way past.

Against the big-hitting Querrey, it had been all about Murray neutralising the serve then letting his superior technique do the talking. But here, Zverev was classy in his own right - and, at 5-5, he out-thought the World No1 to break for the THIRD time and leave himself serving for the set.

First point, Murray tried to lob him and saw the ball smashed back past his ears. Second point, Murray fired wide from the back of the court. A wide, swinging serve skewed into the backboards off the Scot’s frame. A searing ace finished the job.

For the first time this week, someone had taken a set off the Wimbledon and Olympic champion and you could see how unsettled he was.

It was time to move up through the gears and it looked like he had when he broke in the second game of the second and held for 3-0. But what should have been a procession from there turned into another chaotic episode, Zverev breaking back for 3-2, Murray for 4-2 and Zverez once more for 4-3 before finally holding to make it all square.

A big breath and Murray held to love, before racing to 0-40 - three set points - on the Zverev serve. Again, the set looked his. Again, he was made to wait, the German saving those three and a fourth to stay in the hunt.

Murray held to serve again. He raced to 0-40 and three set points again. And this time, he saw it out. He was level - and now, the crowd prepared for the big name to pull away and put the unseeded upstart in his place.

Not a chance. From 2-1 down in the third, Zverev raised an already-impressive level to totally new heights, winning five games on the bounce to put himself back in the lead.

When he then broke in the opening game of the fourth, he’d taken the Murray serve apart EIGHT times. It was astonishing stuff, a match that had been tipped almost as a given for the British superstar, yet which was running away from him.

Champions step up. They don’t wait. That’s what makes them champions - and that’s what Djokovic had forgotten against Denis Istomin the other day. He waited for things to happen and they never did.

If Murray didn’t realise that lesson now, he was done for.

A brilliant, reflex backhand at the net teed up an all-too-rare hold of serve to keep himself in it at 3-2. But crunch time was coming. He needed his sixth break soon - real soon.

Zverev took his first chance away, holding confidently for 4-2. You’d waited and waited for some sign of nerves as the realisation dawned of just what he was on the brink of, but it simply hadn’t come.

At 40-15 in the next game, he played two terrible shots, netting a simple volley and then a smash into an open court to give Murray a chink of light. It was soon extinguished - and now the World No1 was serving to stay in the Australian Open.

First point, Zverev came to the net and put the forehand away. Second, a net cord dropped agonisingly back onto his own side. Third, a long rally ended with the German placing a backhand just wide. Fourth, another net cord - but this time in fell the other side and it was 30-all.

Murray blammed down his biggest serve of the match, 132 miles and hour, to make it 40-30. But in stepped Zverev to force deuce. Another rally, Zverez goes long, advantage Murray. Every point now was a prisoner - so why Murray then gave away such a precious one, we’ll never know.

His first serve was called out, but he walked to the umpire, telling him it was in. What he didn’t do was challenge - and replays showed it HAD been in. When he took the second serve, he lost the point. He couldn’t have been making things any harder for himself.

But then…wow, a sensation backhand passing shot, squeezing between Zverev’s racquet and the line and he’d held for 4-5.

Back they went to their chairs, the longest changeover in the German’s career. One more hold and he was in the last eight. Blow it and the whole match could change.

We should have known better than to doubt the guy by now. Because out he came to seal the biggest moment of his career - and make this just about anyone’s title.